Truth - Geistige Entwicklung

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Truth helps in the knowledge of God

At length, all people seek the truth. Sooner or later untruths, lies, dishonesty are recognized - quite simply because they cannot form a sustainable basis for the coexistence of people. Truth leads to the knowledge of God - and the knowledge of God leads to truth.

Truth is a central goal of every human being on his spiritual path of development. But this does not necessarily mean that truth - or better the recognized truth - is the same for every human being. Truth goes on the one hand with love, on the other hand with peacefulness: "It is inconceivable that a person who loves the truth is not peaceful, that does not exist! A person who loves the truth and who has already fixed the truth in his virtue consciousness as an immovable post, he will be accordingly peaceable, because he has become free from discord through the truth. The cosmic spiritual laws that penetrate to you on this earth are of such gratifying truth, of such gratifying freedom, of such gratifying vibrational elasticity that the intensive truth life also makes you free. And there I come to the word of Christ: 'The truth will make you free!'" (Weidner 2002c:352).

"If you want to arrive at that TRUTH, then you must learn to surrender yourself anew with every breath, to walk toward God with every step. Every morning when you awake, you should pray to be allowed to serve without expecting a reward" (Feild 1977:108).

"The disciple could hardly wait to tell the master the rumor he had heard in the market. 'Wait a moment,' said the master. 'What you are about to tell us, is it true?' 'I don't think so.' 'Is it useful?' 'No, it isn't.' 'Is it funny?' 'No.' 'Then why should we know it?'" (de Mello 1986:21).

"The full realization of a truth is tantamount to its appropriation, and it is impossible for a spirit being who has recognized a truth in the true sense of the word to live other than in it" (Weidner 2011:212).

The fact that in today's world the handling of truth has become very arbitrary (cf. Schumatsky in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 25.4.2016:8), indeed that truth is increasingly relativized, twisted or even turned into its opposite in politics and the public sphere, but also in the media (cf. Schumatsky in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of 25.4.2016:8), cannot and must not deter us from always searching for truth - and that on all levels: In principle and in every single concrete case. With the spiritual development of a person also the handling of the truth becomes more sensitive, more honest, more concerned and more persistent. This also means that we search for more and more truth. The path of spiritual development is always also a path to truth.

"Truth must remain truth, no matter from whom it comes. It ultimately comes from God" (Weidner 2003a:73).

An interesting question is whether truth is cognition- and thus development-dependent: does truth change with a person's spiritual development?

Anselm Grün (1997:10) writes: "The closer we come to God, the more clearly we recognize our own truth. And the more we become one with God, the freer we become. ... True freedom is ... not freedom from external domination, but inner freedom, freedom from the power of the world, freedom from the power of other people, and freedom from inner and outer constraints."

In any case, "the more secure ... brothers and sisters appear with their supposed insights or demand approval in cash from others, the denser is their spiritual darkness that surrounds them" (Weidner 2008b:66).

"The spiritual truths remain the same, no matter how far apart the views may be. The more intensively and thus higher a truth-seeker ascends on the mountain of the spiritual levels of life, the more clearly he overlooks the truths which interweave like colored threads of truth, like a carpet" (Weidner 2009b:101).

"There is only one truth. ... But this one truth is with the Creator. Everything else is distribution of truth into truths as his creatures can receive, grasp, experience, and live. That is why we messengers of God speak of truths" (Weidner 2007a:115).

When someone asks for something, we should help if it concerns a matter of charity, of diakonia. When making promises or commitments, we should always first consider whether we can keep what we have promised (cf. Weidner 2002b:195). If we promised something a long time ago and can no longer keep it - either because the person has died or because contact has broken off - we can ask the guardian spirit to help us make up for the unkept promise - if not to the person in question, then to his or her siblings, relatives or descendants (cf. Weidner 2002b:198/199).

Alleviating need and giving alms is undoubtedly meritorious. But: The merit is not in giving something only when you are begged for help, but the higher merit is in seeing the need. Your guardian angel or protective spirit makes you aware of it" (Weidner 1995:111). The goal would have to be to always help or even when we recognize need, not only when we are asked for help.

"Life on earth can turn out very differently, but always the person close to God and connected to God feels his firm hold in the light of truth in joy and sorrow, while the person far from God leads a life of coldness and restlessness and often fails because of his own inability and collapses without a foothold" (Weidner 1987:114).

The commitment to truth - even if it is recognized incompletely - leads to a more intense spirituality and to a deeper ethics. Both are expressed in corresponding everyday actions.

Here you will find all references and sources.

Download this text as pdf-file:  Text SD 3: Truth.